CoR NEWSMarch 15, 2019
To: APLU Council on ResearchFrom: APLU CoR Staff
- CECE-CoR Joint Summer Meeting Update
- Call for Input: CoR Public Impact-Focused Research Survey
- Call for Applications: CoR Research Leader Fellowship Program
- Call for Nominations: CoR Executive Committee Membership and Leadership Nominating Committee
- Call for Nominations: National Medal of Technology and Innovation
- APLU Responds to WSJ Op-Ed on OPT & STEM OPT Programs
- APLU Analysis of the Administration’s FY2020 Budget Proposal
- Higher Ed & Science Communities Urge Leaders to Lift BCA Caps
- Associations Comment on USPTO Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance
- OSTP Science and Technology Highlights Report
- USAID Notice of Funding Opportunity for Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement
- NIH Seeks to Fund Research on Ethical Considerations Related to Biomedical Research
- New NIH “Under the Poliscope” Blog About Data Sharing and Biomedical Research
- New Report on How NIH-Funded Research Benefits Rural States
- Revised NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide
We are headed to Penn State! CoR will meet jointly with APLU’s Commission on Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) on June 16-19, 2019 at The Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center in State College, Pennsylvania. The pre-meeting “New and Future VPR Workshop” for new and aspiring Senior Research Officers (SROs) will take place on Sunday, June 16, followed by an evening reception on Sunday and two full days of programming on Monday, June 17 (8am ET start) and Tuesday, June 18 (8pm ET end). Members of CoR also are welcome to stay for APLU’s sixth annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity Universities Workshop on Wednesday, June 19 (5pm end). We expect most attendees will arrive on Saturday, June 15 or Sunday, June 16 and will depart on Wednesday, June 19. We once again encourage each participating SRO to invite one Associate Vice Chancellor/President for Research, or future SRO, both to attend the meeting and participate in the pre-meeting workshop, designed to build skills and address topics specific to this audience.
This meeting will be a one-of-a-kind gathering of research officers, economic and community engagement officers, and other administrators with responsibility for planning, executing, and communicating the impact of research and engagement across public universities. All programming will be joint with CECE on Monday, June 17; CoR and CECE will have separate programming on Tuesday, June 18. Registration and hotel reservation information for members of CoR will be shared soon. Please direct any questions to Sarah Rovito or Tia Freelove Kirk.
The APLU Council on Research Public Impact-Focused Research (PIR) Initiative has developed a brief survey (expected time to completion less than 20 minutes) with the intent of gathering input to understand the scope, scale, and characteristics of PIR efforts across APLU institutions. Aggregate survey responses will be presented in the final PIR report, and specific individuals or institutions will not be identified by name. Your input is kindly requested by Monday, March 25, 2019.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the survey and contribute to this important initiative. Please direct any questions to Kevin Gardner or Sarah Rovito.
Applications are being accepted for the third cohort of the CoR Research Leader Fellowship Program. This program seeks to provide training and skill development for individuals who work closely in various capacities as or with Vice Presidents and/or Provosts for Research (VPR) and Vice Chancellors for Research (VCR) at APLU member institutions, including those who aspire to transition into VPR/VCR positions in the future.
The deadline for applications is Monday, April 1, 2019. Please direct any questions regarding the application process to Research Leader Fellowship Program coordinators Robert Nobles and Alicia Knoedler or APLU Director of Science & Research Policy Sarah Rovito.
Nominations are now being accepted for the CoR Executive Committee Membership and Leadership Nominating Committee. During the January CoR Executive Committee Meeting, the Executive Committee, chaired by Sandra Brown, changed the selection and election process for CoR Executive Committee membership and leadership. Formerly, the CoR Executive Committee Nominating Committee consisted of three people – the former Chair, present Chair, and Chair-elect – who developed a slate of candidates from nominations. This slate was then presented to members of CoR at the CoR Business Meeting at the APLU Annual Meeting for an up or down vote. This process ensured consideration in the candidate selection of balancing important attributes, such as individual demographics, institutional characteristics, and geography. Given the increased interest by members of CoR in serving in a CoR leadership position, the Executive Committee felt it would be helpful to incorporate a membership vote into the selection process and to expand the Nominating Committee to retain the balancing of individual and institutional attributes of a proposed slate.
The process will work this way in 2019, its first year:
- Spring: CoR Chairs form the Nominating Committee from those nominated via the call below.
- June – August: Nominations are solicited for membership on the Executive Committee and for Chair-Elect.
- September – October: Senior Research Officers (one per institution) vote via electronic ballot based on nominations.
- October: Nominating Committee creates a slate of candidates, drawing from those receiving the highest numbers of votes but also taking care to balance individual and institutional attributes.
- November: CoR Executive Committee conducts up or down vote on the entire slate.
- November at the APLU Annual Meeting: New members are welcomed to the CoR Executive Committee and as Chair-Elect.
The CoR Executive Committee Membership and Leadership Nominating Committee will consist of five individuals: the incoming and current CoR Executive Committee Chairs (Sarah Nusser and Sandra Brown, respectively), at least one member of CoR who is a past or current Executive Committee member, and at least one member of CoR from general membership. Nominations for the three available slots are now being accepted through Friday, April 5, 2019. Please direct any questions to Sarah Rovito.
Applications are being accepted for the 2019 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, America’s highest honor for technological achievement. The NMTI recognizes individuals, teams, companies, or nonprofits that have made lasting contributions and improvements to America’s competitiveness, standard of living, and technological workforce.
The deadline for applications is Friday, April 5, 2019. Nominations can be submitted online; please direct any questions to Linda Hosler.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a letter to the editor that APLU President Peter McPherson submitted in response to an opinion piece that the WSJ Editorial Board published last week on the value of the OPT and STEM OPT programs. In his response, President McPherson stressed the importance of practical training for international students, arguing that “these policies aren’t just key for attracting foreign students; they’re a formula for a flourishing American economy.”
APLU Congressional and Governmental Affairs staff have produced an updated analysis of the administration’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the various agencies and programs of particular importance to APLU institutions. The analysis will be updated as further materials are released, along with the FY2020 appropriations priorities chart (updated to include DoD’s budget request, released on Tuesday).
APLU released a statement on Monday expressing deep concern and opposition to the proposed cuts and elimination of higher education and research programs within the budget request.
Recently, several organizations have communicated with Capitol Hill and the administration to make the case for increasing the discretionary budget caps for FYs 2020 and 2021. APLU and AAU sent a joint letter to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget. The Coalition for National Security Research and the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, coalitions of which APLU is a member, also sent letters advocating for a budget agreement that lifts the caps. While leaders in Washington acted to raise the Budget Control Act’s (BCA) discretionary spending caps in prior years, Congress and the White House have yet to strike a budget deal that raises BCA discretionary spending limits for FY2020 and FY2021, the last two years of the BCA. The absence of a budget deal would mean discretionary funding would decrease by $126 billion in FY2020 from the current year.
Last week, APLU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) in submitting comments to the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) supporting the agency’s 2019 Revised Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance. The guidance from USPTO revises the procedures that officials use to determine patentability under Section 101 of the patent law.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently released its Science and Technology Highlights Report for 2018. The report welcomes OSTP Director (and former CoR Chair) Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier and outlines initiatives on 5G and rural connectivity, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and the STEM workforce.
USAID recently issued an alert to potential university partners regarding an upcoming Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to award a new Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement. This new Innovation Lab is part of a broader crop improvement research strategy developed from the results of a study that USAID commissioned to determine where investments in crops could make the greatest impact in poverty and hunger reduction.
Additional information regarding this Innovation Lab can be found in the Business Forecast link. The target release date of the NOFO is between March 18 and March 29, 2019. The NOFO will contain the date and time of a webinar for potential applicants, to be held approximately 2 weeks after the release of the NOFO. A transcript will be provided as an amendment to the NOFO and posted on grants.gov along with all written questions and answers to the Agreement Officer.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for administrative supplements to support research on bioethical issues to inform future policy directions. Consideration of ethical issues associated with biomedical research is intrinsic to the responsible conduct of science and the translation of scientific and technological advances into practice. The investment in and the integration of bioethics-related research and policy demonstrates NIH’s commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the research that it conducts and supports.
Applications will be accepted until May 13, 2019, and all organizations administering an eligible parent award may apply for a supplement under this announcement. Interested applicants may supplement parent awards focused on bioethics or add a component related to bioethics to a parent award in which bioethics was not the focus. Issues addressed are expected to fall within the scope of research and policy activities of the NIH but may be beyond the focus of any one Institute or Center. In addition to overarching areas of interest, individual Institutes and Centers have indicated specific areas of research interest within the announcement. Complete Information, including how to apply can be found here. Questions about the FOA may be directed to the agency contacts included in the announcement.
For more background on this FOA, please see Dr. Carrie Wolinetz’s recent Under the Poliscope blog: Investing in Bioethics Research to Inform Science Policy.
A new blog from “Under the Poliscope” is now available. This latest entry, “GDPR: Crossing the Data Sharing Bridge, One Regulation at a Time,” discusses the European General Data Protection Regulation and what it means for NIH stakeholders. As with all of our blogs, we invite you to add your voice to the conversation by providing your thoughts in the comment section of the blog. If you have any questions or require further information about the OSP blog or any of OSP’s activities, please contact us at SciencePolicy@od.nih.gov.
Earlier this week, United for Medical Research (UMR) released a new report titled “How NIH-Funded Research Benefits Rural States.” The report looks at the economies of seven rural states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, and West Virginia) and finds that in these states, NIH-funded research plays a significant role in boosting sales, jobs, taxes, and development of the labor force. See the report, executive summary, and state snapshots. A briefing on the report is available here.
NSF recently sent the letter below concerning revisions to the agency’s award terms and conditions:
Dear Colleagues:
Due to the recent lapse in appropriations, implementation of the revised NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), (NSF 19-1) was postponed. We are pleased to announce that the revised PAPPG will now be effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after February 25, 2019. Significant changes include:
- Addition of Research.gov as an option for proposal preparation and submission, and proposal file updates;
- Revision of eligibility standards for unaffiliated individuals;
- Specification that conference proposals over $50,000 and all equipment proposals must include the Collaborators and Other Affiliations information in the proposal submission;
- Revision of resubmission guidelines for NSF programs that accept proposals at any time;
- Implementation of NSF’s policy on sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, or sexual assault;
- Specification that proposers are required to have a policy or code-of-conduct that addresses sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, and sexual assault, and that includes clear and accessible means of reporting violations of the policy or code-of-conduct. This policy or code-of-conduct must be disseminated to conference participants prior to attendance at the conference as well as made available at the conference itself;
- Emphasis on the importance of training faculty in the responsible and ethical conduct of research;
- Incorporation of existing patent policy into the PAPPG. This policy was previously implemented by regulation at 45 CFR 650; and
- Numerous clarifications and other changes throughout the document.
You are encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided in the Introduction section of the PAPPG. To learn about the changes in the revised PAPPG (NSF 19-1), please view the latest NSF Proposal & Award Policy Update webinar.
Associated award terms and conditions (including RTC NSF Agency Specific Requirements, GC-1, and FL-26) will also be effective for proposals submitted or due, on or after, February 25, 2019. Cooperative Agreement Conditions (CA-FATC) and CA-FATC Modifications and Supplemental terms and conditions are effective for new awards and funding actions to existing awards beginning on February 12, 2019.
If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact the DIAS/Policy Office at policy@nsf.gov.
Regards,
Jean Feldman
(on detail)
Lead for EC (European Commission) Framework Programme Engagement
Office of International Science and Engineering
National Science Foundation
Voice: (703) 292-4573
Email: jfeldman@nsf.gov
Stay Connected
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS
Join the Conversation